The Cursed King

"Internet?"

Elise had heard about this and knew a little bit about how to use it. But she was not that savvy. So, she looked at the man with batted eyes.

"Yes, we have internet in a device to search for answers for whatever it is we need to know. Here, you can use mine," said Loriel. He pulled out his phone from his pocket and showed it to Elise.

Patiently, the man opened the screen and opened the browser, and taught Elise how to search for her query. 

"You can type in your questions in the search engine, and it will give you answers from millions of data stored on the internet. You can think of it as a virtual library, filled with all data and publications that we have had since decades ago. If you remember my library at home, this thing called internet keeps data like a million library." 

Elise looked at Loriel in awe. "Wow…"

"Pretty cool, eh?" Loriel smiled sweetly. 

"Yes." Elise looked at his phone again and reached out her hand to ask for it. "Can I try?"

"Yes. You can type in your search." Loriel gave her his phone. "Let me know if you need help."

"Thank you."

Elise accepted the man's phone from Loriel. Ah.. this device looked very handy, she thought. Maybe she should buy one for herself once she had enough money.

She typed in the keywords that she was looking for with little help. Loriel just pointed at the field to type and how she could get the result in images.

WOMEN WORK OUTFIT

The search result soon came up.

[ Women Work Outfit]

[ All ] [ Images ] [ Shopping ] [ News ] [ Maps ] [ More ]

[About 11,070,000,000 results (0.15 seconds) ]

Elise checked out the first image in the available ones and quickly looked over at the available clothes on display. There was a multitude of clothes of varying colors and styles in different racks.

Once she figured out the dress code, Elise quickly moved and started gathering her clothes.

Loriel watched the woman walk around the display section and compared the outfits there to the images she saw online. Her face was beaming with excitement, made the man feel so happy.

Ahh… they lived in a different time now. In the past, clothes were not as easily accessible as they were today. It cost more to buy clothes than to get a beautiful artistic painting

But now was the era of fast fashion and synthetic material. Clothes were easy to get and available at the tip of your finger. Loriel hated it actually. Human waste from the fast fashion industry was piling up day by day and soon it ruined the environment.

However, today he was grateful for them since he could bring Elise to buy clothes. Even though he would prefer to call a designer and seamstress to come and make her clothes, he couldn't do it just yet.

Elise would be suspicious because his gesture would be seen as excessive for someone who just met her and claimed to be poor.

His designer could wait. In the meantime, he would let Elise buy clothes from the shop.

Elise picked out a peach cream blazer, a white buttoned blouse, and then a dark pencil skirt for herself. It was the first image result that came up and so she was done. 

Were there any shoes here?

There actually were shoes, sandals, and other footwear available in a completely different section of Bloomingrose. Elise ended up picking up a pair of black heels for her to wear in the office, the exact same one shown in the photo.

This was truly a store that fitted a person from head to toe. A one-stop-shop for all of one's fashion needs. Elise saw hats, hair accessories, and other accessories to pair with one's outfit.

Her gaze temporarily wandered to a butterfly brooch.

Elise carefully picked it up and noticed its beautiful inlays of gold and silver dust. It was a good touch to the outfit that she picked, but it wasn't an essential item for her to get.

She returned it to the display and then walked over to Loriel. "I'm done."

"Is that all?" Loriel asked. Elise only picked out a set of clothing and nothing else. He cleared his throat, "You might need more than one set unless you want to keep washing them and wear them every day during your work."

"Oh…" Elise looked at him, thought about it, and then gushed. "You are right."

She returned to the display of clothes, picked out two more sets, and then returned to him. "I'm done, I think this is enough alternate clothing."

Maybe she should have chosen more. Even her own closet back at home definitely had more options to give, but things were different now. However, she didn't want to owe people too much.

Even though Loriel said his loyalty points were useless for him and they would expire anyway since he didn't use them, Elise didn't want to owe him more than what she could afford to pay back.

She was determined to return those points in money, for how much they were worth after she got a job and made money.

She didn't tell Loriel this, worried that he would say no, but she was checking the prices of the clothes she was buying and calculate how much money she should pay him back.

"Are you sure?" Loriel asked her.

"Yes, I am sure," said Elise. "Thank you for this… and for letting me know how to do the search."

Elise felt so grateful that Loriel taught her gently and patiently how to use the internet on his phone and did her search. She felt so bad about not knowing many things and was worried people would think she was weird and they would judge her.

However, this man was so nice and understanding. He didn't even look surprised to know Elise didn't seem to understand how the internet worked.

His reaction was quite nonchalant about it. He didn't make Elise feel awkward or embarrassed. Everything he did was actually pleasant and nice.